


this love, once lost (is ours)

by LiveLaughLovex



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Divorced Fitzgerald Grant & Olivia Pope, F/M, Introspection, Post-Divorce, Post-Season/Series 05, President Mellie Grant, Vice President Jake Ballard, very little actual dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:21:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26189407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: 1,079 days after Melody Grant’s inauguration, Fitz Grant and Olivia Pope sign divorce papers and she moves back to D.C. with their two-year-old daughter in tow. A lot of very important things occur after this.
Relationships: Fitzgerald Grant/Olivia Pope (minor/past), Jake Ballard/Olivia Pope
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	this love, once lost (is ours)

**Author's Note:**

> This ignores anything revealed after the season five finale, mostly because I didn't really watch any of season six (beyond the first two episodes) or season seven, so I'm choosing to just ignore it completely rather than subjecting myself to those episodes now. Okay? Okay. 
> 
> Essentially, what you need to know can be boiled down to this: Mellie is President, Jake is her VP, 279 days after January 20 is October 26, and 1,079 days after Inauguration Day 2017 is almost exactly three years, give or take two weeks. 
> 
> Also, if you care about these things at all: I chose the name Arabella to honor Arabella Mansfield, the first woman lawyer in the U.S. It's also just a very pretty name in general, so it works. 
> 
> The title comes from the poem "Second Chance" by Michael Faudet.

Exactly 279 days after the inauguration of Melody Grant as the forty-fifth president of the United States, Arabella Faye Pope-Grant is born to ecstatic parents in a hospital 513 miles away. She has the bright blue eyes of her father and the dark curls of her mother, and she is beloved by all from the second the world is given its first glimpse of her.

She is christened sixty-four days after her birth, at the National Cathedral, with over 400 guests in attendance and the sitting President of the United States serving as her godmother. From early on, it seems unlikely that her life will even come close to being ordinary.

Surprisingly, she is still fortunate enough to be raised quietly, growing up at her parents’ private estate in northern Vermont. Her childhood is documented only by her parents, who cover the refrigerator door and their private offices with photographs of a bubbly, laughing little girl. She is adored openly by both her older siblings, and adores them in equal measure – the second she learns to walk, she begins trailing around after Karen and Teddy like a happy little duck each and every time they come to visit.

Arabella is eighteen months old when the nightly arguments begin. Olivia and Fitz do everything they can to protect their daughter from their relationship’s ongoing demise. They always speak in hushed tones, and only after they’ve tucked her safely into bed and are certain she’s fast asleep. They live in constant fear of Arabella coming to see her mother in the same way Olivia sees Maya, or to look at Fitz the way Olivia looks at Rowan.

They try their best, to bridge the gap, to resolve their problems. It all proves unsuccessful in the end, though. 1,079 days after Melody Grant’s inauguration, Fitz Grant and Olivia Pope sign divorce papers. He keeps their house in Vermont; she moves to Georgetown with their two-year-old daughter and returns to her old job at OPA. They trade off weekends with Arabella. It’s different, that’s for certain, but it’s also better. For the first time in what seems like a long time, it finally feels like they’re moving towards their own personal happiness rather than away from it.

Olivia’s been back in D.C. for less than two weeks when she sees Jake for the first time. They haven’t spoken since Arabella was a few weeks old, when he sent a bouquet of bright flowers and a perfunctory message of congratulations that still managed, somehow, to sound genuine.

It’s been two years – more than, actually – and yet there’s no doubting the happiness of his grin as she sits on the bench beside him, or the love in his gaze as he listens to her speak.

They sit there for nearly an hour, both keeping a close eye on Arabella as she toddles about in the grass, and it feels so very much like it used to be, before everything – before they’d stopped trusting each other, before they’d somehow managed to forget they _loved_ each other – that Olivia’s got to shake herself out of the past before she can retrieve her giggling little girl and bid the man still seated on the bench farewell.

He smiles at her once more, that same sad, brittle smile she recognizes from days gone by, from all the times she’s broken his heart by leaving him or staying without him, and she hates herself a little for it, for being the only woman – including his dead wife – who’s ever been able to put that exact look of brokenness in his eyes.

“I’m bringing Arabella to the White House next week,” she finds herself saying, hoping to rid him of that look. “To see Mellie. It’s not that far a walk from the Oval to your office. We could drop by, if that’s okay.”

And Jake, because he’s Jake, doesn’t even pretend to think about it before nodding. “I’d like that.”

“Okay,” Olivia replies, adjusting her grip on Arabella as the little girl tugs insistently at her mother’s curls. “We’ll see you then.”

“See you then,” Arabella echoes her mother, making the vice president’s smile widen as he returns the wave the two-year-old gives him. “Bye-bye, J.”

“Bye-bye, Arabella,” he replies, beaming as his eyes meet Olivia’s once more. “Bye, Liv,” he adds quietly.

“ _See you next week_ , Jake,” she corrects just as softly, shifting Arabella on her hip before turning back the way they came.

When she glances over her shoulder just before they make it back to the parking lot, he’s still sitting there, eyes focused on her retreating form. She’s spent the past week trying to convince herself and everyone she has ever met that this is nothing, just a meeting between friends, but the look on her face makes her doubt the truth of her own words.

She has never before in her life been so absolutely thrilled by the very prospect of being proven completely wrong. 


End file.
